ISLAMABAD, 9 May 2006 — US helicopter gunships wounded at least three Pakistani laborers in a missile strike against suspected Taleban fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region yesterday, according to security officials.
The three were brought to the Pakistani border town of Angoor Adda from a nearby mountain where they had been mining for minerals, but another eight men were unaccounted for, said the officials, who requested anonymity.
The attack came on the heels of criticism by a senior US official of Pakistan’s efforts to stop Taleban fighters crossing into Afghanistan to attack US and Afghan forces.
Security officials said the attack was launched during the early afternoon on the slopes of a mountain called Khawaja Khizer. Military and government spokesmen could not be immediately contacted, and it was unknown whether the US side had consulted Pakistani forces before carrying out the attack inside Pakistani territory.
Henry Crumpton, the US State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, said in Kabul on Saturday; “Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is ‘no’.”
“Not only Al-Qaeda, but Taleban leaders are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that,” Crumpton said, adding that eliminating militant safe havens in Pakistan’s tribal lands was crucial.
In another incident a policeman was killed in a remote tribal area bordering Afghanistan yesterday. The tribal policeman died at Inayat Kili, some 15 kilometers west of the main town of Khar in Bajaur district, when he stepped on a mine, a tribal administration official told AFP.
It was not immediately clear who planted the mine, but suspected pro-Taleban militants have been blamed for similar attacks in the region, where tribes are also known to use the devices against rivals.
Meanwhile, unidentified men fired two rockets on a security forces camp in Khar on Sunday night. The rockets fell in open spaces and caused no damage, the official said. Authorities have detained some eight suspects for their roles in the attack, he said. Separately, unidentified men fired rockets on a security post in Inayat Kili late Sunday, but there were no reports of any damage so far, he said. Last week, armed men stormed a security post in Bajaur killing three policemen.
Authorities fear the recent surge in violent attacks in the region could be a result of killing of an Al-Qaeda explosive expert Abu Marwan Al-Suri during a clash with local police at a checkpoint last month.
